Top private school in South Africa’s richest area with 4.27 distinctions per matric

Crawford International Sandton is one of the best-performing schools in South Africa. Its 2024 matric class secured an average of 4.27 distinctions per student.

The ADvTECH-owned school is part of the Crawford International school network, which also includes schools in Bedfordview, Bryanston, Fourways, La Lucia, Lonehill, North Coast, Pretoria, and Ruimsig.

2024 was a strong year for schools in South Africa, with the matric pass rate for public schools rising to nearly 90%. This is a massive improvement from the 60% in 2009.

That said, it is still far behind the pass rate for private schools. The IEB announced an overall pass rate of 98.47% for its NSC examinations, slightly improving from 98.46% in 2023.

Crawford Sandton was one of the best-performing schools in the country, with 4.37 distinctions per candidate.

This made it the country’s second-best performing co-ed private school, beaten to the top spot by fellow Johannesburg school Saheti, which recorded 4.50 distinctions per candidate.

When considering all private schools, Crawford International Sandton was the third-best performing school, with Johannesburg-based Roedean seeing an average of 4.42.

Crawford International Sandton lies in the heart of Sandton, often called the richest square mile in Africa. Several major companies are headquartered in the area.

The campus was built over 20 years ago and features classrooms, studios, laboratories, and centres.

Apart from its academic achievements, the Sandton school offers several sports activities, including swimming, equestrian, tennis, soccer, cricket, basketball, netball and more.

The school also offers students a unique uniform via its ‘multiform,’ allowing students to mix and match the casual uniform daily.

The first Crawford International School was built in 1993, and its network has grown to be the largest private school organisation in South Africa.

Since then, it has grown into South Africa’s largest private school organization, comprising 19 schools known for their innovative approach to education.

The network expanded beyond South Africa’s borders in 2018 after a Crawford school was opened in Nairobi, Kenya.

However, the strong results and facilities across the network do come at a high cost. Crawford Sandton’s fees for 2025 rose by 7% to R202,840.

Big money

Crawford is owned by the JSE-listed ADvTECH, which also owns Pinnacle College, Varsity College, TrinityHouse, Vega School and more.

The business now includes 17 education brands, encompassing over 153 education, training and recruitment sites across Africa.

The company, whose roots date back to 1909, recently announced it expects a large increase in earnings for 2024.

The educator said its basic earnings per share, normalised basic earnings per share and headline earnings per share for 2024 are expected to be between 13% and 18% higher than in 2023.

“We are pleased with enrolments for 2025 for both the schools and tertiary divisions that are tracking in line with targets and continuing their trend of good growth,” the company said.

The results for 2024 are expected to be released on or about Monday, 24 March 2025.

ADvTECH will release its results for the year ended 31 December 2024 on or about Monday, 24 March 2025.

Images of Crawford International Sandton